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Norton Ghost 10 Hell (Read 12626 times)
pcklutz
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Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Oct 22nd, 2012 at 12:02am
 
Computer:  Dell GX270     OS:  Windows XP Pro
Background:  I have been using a 250 GB USB HD to manually back up important files that were also on the internal 40 GB HD.  Finally, I needed more internal capacity as I had only 0.9 GB free space.  Several years ago, I bought at Frys a Norton bundle that included Ghost 10 which I never used.  (Have used Ghost 2003 and Ghost 12 on other PCs but never to change HDs.)  Ghost 10 sounded like just what I needed to replace the 40 GB drive with the 250 GB drive so I installed it.  I also added a 1.3 TB NAS and stored recovery points of both HDs on it.  Then I cloned the “40” onto the “250”.  Apparent success so far.

1. XP would not boot from the “250”; it started but hung up before asking for a password.  Found on the internet that you can’t clone a drive to a formatted drive.  (Also learned that it is a good idea to have at least 10% free space on the source drive so I moved 8 GB of data files off to the NAS.)  Deleted the partition on the “250” with the Diskpart Delete Partition command in XP and cloned it again but with Resize The Partition checked.
2. This time, I got the Windows blue screen of death message.  Returned to the internet and learned that XP wants the cloned partition to be the same size as the original.  Deleted the partition and cloned again without resizing.  Success - except with the small partition I am no better off than when I started.  (I swear that at one point in my screwing around with Ghost 10, a “PQ PartitionMagic” opening screen came up.  At the time, I was not interested in that.  Now I cannot find it again.  Anybody know how?)
3. Tried to increase partition size (unsuccessfully) using the Diskpart Extend command. Error msg: “Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid for extending”
4. Taking a different tack, I decided to try a recovery using Ghost recovery point (stored on the NAS).  Before messing with the 250, I tried it on the original 40 (that I put back into the PC in place of the 250).  Failure.  In recovery environment using the CD, the NAS is found but I cannot drill down to the location of the recovery point.
5. The 250 contained a clone of the 40 so I decided to clone it back to the 40 just to see if it would work.  In retrospect, that was a stupid decision as it did not work.  Msg is 'not enough space on the destination' even though the clone on the 250 is 37.24 GB total as was the 40 originally and there is only 28 used.

If anyone can answer these, please let me know.
1. how can I increase the partition size using Ghost 10 after cloning and get it to work with XP?
2. how can I access a recovery point on a network drive?
3. is there any particular point in the above effort that I almost had it right?
4. is there any way to initiate an incremental recovery point manually?  I have the “on logoff” Trigger Event enabled but it is not satisfactory.  It actually does not create the incremental recovery point until I log on again and for about 20 minutes afterward my PC is so sluggish as to be unusable no matter where the Performance slider is set.  I would prefer to initiate an incremental recovery point when I know I am not going to use my PC for half an hour or so.  I definitely do not want to initiate everytime  a new recovery point as that takes over 3 hours over a gigE connection.

My first recovery point was created on 9 Oct.  Today is 21 Oct.  I have spent several hours every day for 13 days on this and have accomplished absolutely nothing.  There is so much critical detail not in the Ghost 10 manual that I don’t see how anyone could successfully use it.  At least I haven’t lost files (as far as I know) but my backup files that were originally on the 250 are now in a recovery point on the NAS).

Since this is Ghost iteration 10, I am surprised and disappointed that it is still such a clunky, user-unfriendly product.
 
 
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Brian
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #1 - Oct 22nd, 2012 at 1:44am
 
@
pcklutz

pcklutz wrote on Oct 22nd, 2012 at 12:02am:
XP would not boot from the “250”; it started but hung up before asking for a password.


Unfortunately, you were only one minute away from success if you had known what to do.

A lot of what you read on the web is partially correct. Do you only have one partition on the 40 GB HD?

Delete the partitions on the new HD.
Start Ghost 10 and run Copy Drive.
Use these options...
Check source for file system errors
Check destination for file system errors
Resize drive to fill unallocated space (Yes, do this)
Set drive active (for booting OS)
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
Copy MBR
Destination partition type : Primary
Drive letter : None

(the wording should be similar to above)

When finished, shutdown and disconnect the old HD. Adjust the new HD jumpers if IDE. (I assume it isn't SATA)

Boot from the new OS. I've never seen Copy Drive fail. But if your copy fails get back to us before trying any "fixes".

Quote:
There is so much critical detail not in the Ghost 10 manual that I don’t see how anyone could successfully use it.

The section on Copy Drive is appalling.

 
 
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #2 - Oct 22nd, 2012 at 11:16am
 
Brian, you said

Delete the partitions on the new HD.
     √  Will comply.  (Have been doing that since I learned to not copy to a formatted drive.)
Start Ghost 10 and run Copy Drive. 
     √  Will comply.  (Have been doing that.)
Use these options...
Check source for file system errors
     √  Will comply.  (Did so on my first attempt only; no errors found.)
Check destination for file system errors
     √  Will comply.  (Did so on my first attempt only; no errors found.)
Resize drive to fill unallocated space (Yes, do this)
     √  Will comply.  (Did so previously; resulted in BSOD.  When I tried again without resizing, XP ran normally)
Set drive active (for booting OS)
     √  Will comply.  (Have been doing that.)
DON'T SELECT Disable SmartSector copying`
     √  Will comply.  (Never selected that.)
DON'T SELECT Ignore bad sectors during copy
     √  Will comply.  (Never selected that.)
Copy MBR
     √  Will comply.  (Have been doing that.)
Destination partition type : Primary
     √  Will comply.  (Have been doing that.)
Drive letter : None
     √  Will comply.  (Have tried that and also with a letter selected.  I don’t remember what happened when I selected None except it didn’t work.  I have been selecting F but when I install the drive, it is recognized as C.)
(the wording should be similar to above)
     √  Very clear; no confusion
When finished, shutdown and disconnect the old HD. Adjust the new HD jumpers if IDE. (I assume it isn't SATA)
     √  Drives are both IDE.  Destination drive is external USB.  Both drive jumpers have always been set to Cable Select.
Boot from the new OS. I've never seen Copy Drive fail. But if your copy fails get back to us before trying any "fixes".
     √  At the moment, a recovery point is being created.  Started about 2 am and it is still going at 10:30 am.  Still has 109 mins to go.  Ghost Performance slider is all the way to Fast.  (I said “over 3 hours” in my original message.  That is technically known as a “wild-assed guess”.)  I’m surprised that it is taking so long but if it isn’t broke, I’m not going to worry about it now.  It will be tonight before I get a chance to work on this again.
 
I don’t see anything in the above that I haven’t already tried but I will gladly do exactly as you suggested.
Einstein got it wrong.  Expecting different results from multiple tries is not insanity but rather is SOP when it comes to me and computers.

FYI  My PC and NAS are connected to a gigE switch.  Also connected to the switch is a wireless N router that connects via WDS link to an identical router (gateway) 20 feet away that is connected to the cable modem.  IPs are distributed over the wireless link from the gateway.  Cables connected to the switch are 6 feet long or less.  Security sw is AVG Internet Security 2012. 

At the moment I am working wirelessly from my laptop so as to not slow down the recovery point creation. 

Thank you very much for your assistance.
 
 
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #3 - Oct 22nd, 2012 at 11:41am
 
I think the reason recovery point creation is taking so long is that I forgot to set the Control Panel Power Option to Always On.  Probably, recovery point creation was suspended when the PC went into Sleep mode.  Always On is now enabled.
 
 
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #4 - Oct 22nd, 2012 at 7:56pm
 
Brian

Here is my Ghost log and the file list of recovery points.

Recovery point creation finally ended after almost 15 hours.  In Reply #3, I thought my PC was going into Standby and suspending Ghost but setting the Power Option to Always On did not speed things up.  Ghost was verifying the files so perhaps that is why it took so long.
==========================================================
Last ten Event Log entries

Warning
Date:  10/22/2012  04:54:09 PM
Description: Error EC8F17D4: Cannot update the job, "Recovery point of C:\", from a previous version. Please edit the job and reselect the source drives.
Details: The parameter is incorrect.

(Event log did not record when this recovery point was initiated manually but it was 2:39 AM)
Information
Date:  10/22/2012  04:54:06 PM
Description: Info 6C8F0432: A manual base recovery point of C:\ completed successfully. Info 60BB0119: The operation, 'Copying volume data', completed successfully; however, there was an error while updating the NT registry updates. Error EA9D0017: Unable to open registry hive file. Error EBAB03F1: The system cannot find the path specified.

From 10/21/2012  09:35:01 PM to 10/21/2012  09:51:14 PM, this message was repeated six times at irregular intervals.  These six and the one at 07:35:43 PM probably resulted from the incremental recovery point set to be triggered upon logoff.
Warning
Date:  10/21/2012  09:51:14 PM
Description: Error EC8F17D4: Cannot update the job, "Recovery point of C:\", from a previous version. Please edit the job and reselect the source drives.
Details: The parameter is incorrect.

Warning
Date:  10/21/2012  07:35:43 PM
Description: Error EC8F17D4: Cannot update the job, "Recovery point of C:\", from a previous version. Please edit the job and reselect the source drives.
Details: The parameter is incorrect.

Information
Date:  10/21/2012  07:35:35 PM
Description: Info 6C8F0427: Norton Ghost service started successfully.
==========================================================
File list of folder O:\Norton Ghost Backups where restore points are stored.

C_Drive001.v2i         33,624,064 KB  Symantec Image File           10/9/2012  12:29 AM  A
C_Drive002.v2i         33,821,952 KB  Symantec Image File          10/17/2012   7:58 AM  A
C_Drive002_i001.iv2i      274,816 KB  Symantec Image File          10/17/2012   1:59 PM  A
C_Drive002_i002.iv2i    1,563,648 KB  Symantec Image File          10/18/2012   3:08 PM  A
C_Drive002_i003.iv2i    2,251,632 KB  Symantec Image File          10/18/2012  10:54 PM  A
C_Drive003.iv2i        29,077,760 KB  Symantec Image File          10/22/2012   9:54 AM  A
DELL-07E70D0357.sv2i            1 KB  Symantec Recovery Disk file  10/22/2012   5:42 PM  A
E_Drive001.v2i        127,305,856 KB  Symantec Image File           10/9/2012   3:58 PM  A
C_Drive003_i001.iv2i      271,360 KB  Symantec Image File          10/22/2012   5:38 PM  A

I have made no changes since I initiated the C drive recovery point creation manually at 2:39 AM.

The recovery point initiated at 2:39 AM and completed at 04:54 PM (in the Event Log) is not listed in the file list.

For the time being, I should disable the scheduled recovery point creation triggered by logoff.  It just creates confusion until I get the other problems resolved.  Do you agree?

I am uneasy that my ONLY copy of the files originally on drive E are in a recovery point on drive O.

Question: Will anything bad happen if I delete all C_Drive001 and C_Drive002 files?

My E drive is the original C drive (40 GB).  Size is 39,991,275,529 bytes with 33,335,713,792 bytes used.
My C drive is the 250 GB drive that I cloned the 40 GB drive to.  Size is 39,991,275,520 bytes with 33,823,207,424 bytes used and the remainder unallocated, of course.  I think my next move should be to clone from C to E (using your suggested setup) because C has some added files.  Then clone from E back to C (again using your setup unless there is a way to directly expand the C partition using Ghost).  Does that make good sense to you?
 
 
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #5 - Oct 22nd, 2012 at 8:06pm
 
Correction to Reply #4
My E drive is the original C drive (40 GB).  Size is 39,991,275,520 bytes - not 39,991,275,529.  Both partition size on both drives is exactly the same.
 
 
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #6 - Oct 24th, 2012 at 3:24pm
 
Brian

I have accomplished what I set out to do which was to clone a full 40GB HD to a 250GB HD and put the 250 in my PC.  As stated earlier, cloning the 40 to the 250 worked (eventually) but I was not able to resize the partition to make the whole 250 available.

What I did was
1. Put a spare 250GB HD in my USB external enclosure and deleted the partition on it.
2. Cloned C: (250GB with 37GB partition; remainder unallocated) to the external drive.  Resize was enabled.
3. I now had identical copies of my files on two drives – one with a 37GB partition and the other with 233GB.
4. I swapped the drives so the one with the small partition was now external.
5. With the Diskpart-Extend command, I successfully increased the small partition to the full 233GB.  I now had two drives of equal size and with identical files. Success at last.

There was only one thing left to do.  I originally had a 250GB USB external drive, E: and a recovery point of that drive was stored on my NAS.
1. From the above steps, I still had a 250GB external drive, E:
2. With Diskpart, I deleted the partition on E:.
3. I ran Recover from my Ghost CD, located the E: recovery point, and started the recovery process.  4 hours later, it was complete.
4. It was then that I discovered that the E: recovery point was "recovered" to my C: drive and not the external E: drive.  VERY BAD but not fatal.  Just need to swap the drives again.

When I started the recovery operation, I expected that I would be given a choice of drives to recover to.  Since I wasn’t given a choice, I assumed that the E: recovery point would be recovered to the E: drive.  I haven’t lost anything but I definitely will be looking for something more user-friendly than Ghost.  (I know; Ghost version 10 has been superceded by at least 5 versions but, after 9 iterations, it should have been easier to use).

Thanks for your assistance. 
 
 
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Re: Norton Ghost 10 Hell
Reply #7 - Oct 24th, 2012 at 4:14pm
 
@
pcklutz

Nice work, but it wasn't as easy as it should have been.

If you would like to try another imaging app, have a look at Image for Windows. There is a 30 day trial.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-windows.htm

You can restore IFW images with IFL or IFD.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1341770812/15#20

 
 
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